Whose War is it?

The people of Pakistan are thoroughly confused if the war their security forces are fighting is an America’s War thrust upon Pakistan or is it our own war? The religious political parties have always maintained that it is America’s war, embracing which is morally wrong and has been costly for Pakistan. They say that attacks on the armed forces of Pakistan are legitimate Jihad as ‘reaction’ to attack on Lal Masjid in Islamabad and military operations in South Waziristan.

Now Imran Khan, leader of TI, and Mian Nawaz Sharif (NS) leader of PML(N) have embraced that logic. The effect of these non-clerics (aided and assisted by TV anchors like Hamid Mir) is that a consensus is emerging in Pakistan that the armed forces are not just an entity separate from the nation but they their own agenda. The anti-military platform has brought together some strange bed fellows. Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif have joined pro-US Asma Jehangir (AJ) and RAW propagandists who have long been busy portraying our Army as ‘rogue Army’ and the ISI as a terrorist outfit.

RAW and AJ do not support the view that the war we are fighting is America’s war but are satisfied that a very broad anti-military coalition is being built that would keep the Pakistan Army fighting an ‘unwinnable war’ against the Taliban ignoring the real threat that comes from Sindhi, Mohajir and Baloch secessionists all of which are supported by India. Do the clerics and their non-cleric supporters not know that the Americans also support separatist forces in Pakistan?